eXoWinXP

[Torinde]

Thank you for the great work done on preserving the gaming history!

I saw an interview where it's explained that eXoWin9x is in preparation and data is being gathered while waiting for the emulation capabilities to improve.

• Win9x covers many games, potentially stretching to DX9.0c titles from 2005
• WinXP is partially contemporary with Win9x/ME and stops at the same DX9.0c level (although goes further on the OpenGL side?)
• WinXP supports only one extra Sound Blaster family (X-Fi) that Win9x/ME don't. Are there other relevant to emulate (providing unique features) sound chips from that era?
• WinXP is the last before sound processing goes more towards software, e.g. emulation of Vista+ era sound chips is not so relevant
• one of the major step-changes in Windows architecture happens between WinXP/Vista
• Vista+ games can run without emulation on latest Windows - is that true for all or there are exceptions? Are there Vista-only games that run neither on WinXP nor Win7 (Hold 'Em from Vista Ultimate maybe)?

Due to the above - what is needed to extend from eXoWin9x to eXoWinXP?

• WinNT/2K games that are not included in eXoWin3x and eXoWin9x (if any?)
• WinXP games that are not included in eXoWin9x (and some may be included in both - especially if working better under XP) - should be roughly the period 2003-2013
• emulation for the later games will require more powerful CPUs and GPUs (probably to depend on virtualization/host-acceleration) and optionally Sound Blaster X-fi/EAX5.0
• especially interesting will be to list the games that do not run properly on Vista+ (if any?) - and maybe start with those as part1

[Torinde]

Looking at PCGW and various other lists and threads it seems the set of "WinXP exclusive" games is not very big:

• most older games run also under Win9x
• most newer games run also under Vista+

Although I couldn't find a definitive list, so creating such may be useful in itself?

Related list would be "NT 32-bit exclusive" games - not running under Win9x, but using 16-bit installer, CD-Audio (list stops at 2004 and it seems most of those work under Win9x as well, but maybe XP versions have some unique capabilities?), StarForce protection (or something else), which breaks compatibility for x64 Windows (thus latest versions like Win11 won't support those games). I would assume those are rare, if any exist at all (e.g. if it's so new that doesn't run under Win9x probably installer is 32-bit and runs under x64).

https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/issues/3538#issuecomment-1657104511:

Also, the x87, MMX, and 3DNow! instruction sets are already deprecated in 64-bit modes - thus it's likely CPUs will lose support of those

Vista drops support for DirectSound/3D/EAX and DirectMusic, although those may be resurrected via OpenAL, etc.

Windows 8 drops support for 16-bit screen modes and XPDM/XDDM drivers. Windows 11 drops support for Live tiles and User-Mode Scheduling. UWP is deprecated and some next Windows may drop support for that, etc.

Generally, it's interesting to track the "maximum requirements" of games and software - what's the latest OS/hardware they can run on and what emulators/solutions there are to overcome that.

WinNT game/software | doesn't work in x64 OS | doesn't work in Vista | doesn't work in 7 | doesn't work in 8 | doesn't work in 10 | doesn't work in 11 | uses x87 | uses MMX | uses 3DNow! -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- ...| ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ?

[Torinde]

MrPepka at above linked issue mentioned this list

Related:

• https://github.com/vogonsorg/OfflineGames/discussions/2#discussion-6839775 By filtering the XLS mentioned there for games running neither on 9x nor Vista (but excluding Unknown and ignoring if audio uses DirectSound/EAX/DirectMusic)
  1. Anachronox
  2. Battlecruiser Millenium
  3. Heavy Metal FAKK2
  4. MDK 2
  5. NeverWinter Nights 2
  6. NeverWinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer
  7. No One Lives Forever 2
  8. Painkiller
  9. Postal 2
  10. Quake 4
  11. Rollcage Stage 2
  12. Zeus: Master of Olympus

[Burinis]

MrPepka at above linked issue mentioned this list

Related:

• Windows 2000 and XP - list of games not working on Vista or Win11 vogonsorg/OfflineGames#2 (comment) By filtering the XLS mentioned there for games running neither on 9x nor Vista (but excluding Unknown and ignoring if audio uses DirectSound/EAX/DirectMusic)

1. Anachronox
2. Battlecruiser Millenium
3. Heavy Metal FAKK2
4. MDK 2
5. NeverWinter Nights 2
6. NeverWinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer
7. No One Lives Forever 2
8. Painkiller
9. Postal 2
10. Quake 4
11. Rollcage Stage 2
12. Zeus: Master of Olympus

I'm wondering: why do many people believe that most games created for Windows XP work fine on Windows 10? I once contacted the SoftGPU driver theme because of a problem that occurred on Windows 98 in VirtualBox 6, and I was advised to upgrade to the 7th version of the WB. In turn, I explained that in addition to Windows 98, I also have XP (as I understand it, virtualbox 6.1 is the latest version that supports 3d acceleration for XP) and wrote that I need Windows XP to run several games of my childhood (Mickey Saves the Day (2001), The Simpsons Hit & Run (2003)), but they immediately started stupidly writing to me that a number of 2000s games are running fine on the 10th Windows. Maybe this is because Windows XP and 10 have the same kernel (NT), although it has been updated several times? Or is it because Windows Server 2003 became the basis for Windows Vista, 7, 8 and all subsequent new Windows (considering what problems Microsoft faced when developing Windows Vista)?